Tech giants and end-users don’t like this because the web is supposed to be built on open technology. Why is Flash quickly becoming obsolete?įlash is a proprietary technology, owned and licensed by the Adobe Corporation.

It also might not be possible, due to security restrictions, to use Flash via third-party browser extensions/add-ons though, Google and Mozilla have not explicitly stated this. This means that you won’t be able to use Flash in-browser, even after explicitly turning it on in your browser settings (which you must do now to play Flash). For good reason! Both Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome plan to completely discontinue Flash by the end of 2020. In 2017, Kongregate published some very eye-opening data concerning the technology used by games uploaded to their platform.Īs you can see, starting in 2010, game developers began rapidly transitioning to HTML5. YouTube ditched Adobe Flash as the default player in 2015. Using data collected from Google Chrome users, Flash usage was at 80% of all websites in 2014, but 4 years later (in 2018) was calculated at a mere 8% according to Parisa Tabriz, Director of Engineering at Google. Jobs predicted HTML5 standards would “win on mobile devices (and PCs too),” and so far his prediction has been correct. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short…” “Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. The article was a response to Adobe’s criticism of Apple for removing flash support on Apple devices, such as the iPad and iPhone. Steve Jobs wrote an infamous article in 2010 titled “ Thoughts on Flash,” in which he outlines the many flaws with Flash technology.

Now that HTML specifications (with HTML5) have “caught up,” so to speak, with the everyday needs of users (watch videos, play games, etc), Flash is being “turned off” and discontinued in major browsers.Īpple was one of the first major tech company to stop supporting flash. It allows users to experience interactive content in the browser that HTML was not originally designed to do, like play games and watch videos.

Flash is a multimedia platform originally developed by a company called Macromedia and bought by Adobe.

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